


The Unexpected Play Date

by Strength_in_pain



Series: Stranger Things Childhood Series [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Adorable, Cute Kids, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Happy, I was in a loving mood, Mike & Will are little kids, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 11:19:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18872146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strength_in_pain/pseuds/Strength_in_pain
Summary: Joyce drops six-year-old Will and ten-year-old Jonathan off at Karen Wheeler’s house. Mike and Will have fun together playing games. This is seriously Just tooth-rotting fluff. I was feeling these adorable little bubs having a great time together. :)





	The Unexpected Play Date

The Unexpected Play date. 

Hawkins 1977. 

Will 6, Mike 6, Jonathan 10, Nancy 10. 

 

It’s nearly 6am when Joyce Byers knocks on Karen Wheelers’ door. Jonathan, her eldest son, is standing beside her, sleepily holding her hand as he rubs his eyes. He is used to getting up early for school, but 6am was too early. 

As for Will, well, he is jumping up and down the steps that lead to the front door, filled with excitement at the prospect of seeing Mike again. The two kids became best friends last year in kindergarten. Since then he has talked Joyce’s ear off about how amazing Mike is. Honestly, Joyce was happy her boy was happy. She was worried he wouldn’t find any friends in kindergarten. Jonathan struggled to make friends, but he never seemed to care. He was happy being around his mom and his little brother, so that made Joyce happy too. 

Will has his arms wrapped around a bag full of his stuff, things like toys and coloring books. He practically begged his mom to let him bring every possession he had, but Joyce had to limit the supply because she frankly didn’t have the time.

It was a last minute situation. Her boss called her into work because Shelby, the girl scheduled to work the night shift, threw up. Under normal circumstances she would have just asked her husband, Lonnie, to watch the boys. But last night, Joyce threw a remote controller at his head and told him to get lost. 

He had threatened to leave her if she didn’t sleep with him that evening. They were already in it over Will playing little league. She tried to convince Lonnie that Will hated baseball, but Lonnie wouldn’t listen. So he ended up sleeping the night at some hotel. 

Which is how Joyce ended up on Karen’s doorstep at six in the morning. 

“I am so sorry, I swear to God,” Joyce says as soon as Karen opens the door. “It’s such a short notice, and oh God, it’s so early but I got called into work and Lonnie-“

“It’s okay, Joyce. I understand. You know your boys are always welcomed here.” Karen smiles. She’s leaning against the doorframe, in a silky pink robe. She is sporting bed hair, which was a tell-tale sign that Joyce definitely woke her up, because Karen Wheeler never had a bad hair day. She would spend hours ensuring that her perm was perfectly right. 

But Joyce doesn’t care if Karen has bed-hair, she honestly feels like dropping to her knees and thanking her, but it’s freezing and she’s in a hurry.

 It’s not the first time Karen is taking care of Jonathan and Will. In fact, she watches them practically twice a week. Karen is by far their favorite babysitter, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that she makes them snacks and takes them for rides in shiny cars. Joyce tries not to be envious of her friend. But it’s a little difficult when Karen has so much luxurious stuff, and Joyce simply doesn’t. Karen was so lucky. She had a beautiful house, a husband, and two amazing kids. It seemed so perfect, Joyce half expects the Wheeler’s to have an actual white picket fence surrounding their home.

“I better get going.” Joyce said. The time on her watch told her she barely had five minutes. Luckily Melvald’s Store wasn’t far. “Be good for Mrs. Wheeler. Remember, you are guests. Don’t break anything and be polite.”

Jonathan and Will nod, and Joyce bends down to give them both a kiss. She passes Jonathan’s hand to Karen, who ruffles Jonathan’s hair fondly. The boy leans into the touch, slumping against Karen. Joyce feels sorry for waking her boy up so early in the morning. She’s just happy that he isn’t being grumpy.

Will grips his Mom’s coat, suddenly not wanting to leave her this morning.

“Come on, Will. It’s time to go inside.” 

“No.” Will’s lower lip wobbles and Joyce is really hoping a tantrum wouldn’t occur this early in the morning. Will is an angelic child. He is so kind and compassionate, it concerns Joyce sometimes how mature he can be for his age. But then there are times where Will shows that he really is just a six-year-old boy who wants his Mom. The tantrums usually only occur when he doesn’t want to eat something, or go somewhere. That might sound often, but Will rarely doesn’t want to go places and he loves most food. 

“Honey. I thought you were excited to see Mike?”

Will nods, but buries his face in his mom’s shirt. “I don’t want you to go.”

“It’s only for a little while. You’re going to have fun.” Joyce says, trying to coax him quickly. 

As if on cue, Mike walks down the steps, blinking sleepily at the people surrounding the door. Rubbing his stuffed animal dog, Pluto, soft ear between his fingers, Mike pushes past his mother’s legs and sees his friend. 

“Will!” Mike shouts. “Are you coming over to play?”

Joyce’s body, frozen by the typical morning breeze, thaws a little at the sight of Mike stepping forward, his hand reaching for Will’s. 

“Come on, Will. Let’s go play! We can color in our coloring books and with our toy cars.”

Will nods, running into the Wheeler’s house with Mike. He stops for a second to turn around and wave at his mom, but then he disappears in the house. 

“Don’t worry. He’ll be fine.” Karen assures Joyce. She can see the worry in friend’s eyes. 

Joyce nods meekly, ignoring the way her eyes sting. They keep it short, their goodbyes, both of them having noticed that Jonathan started shivering. 

She walks to her car and drives away with a final wave. Karen sighs, then smiles down at Jonathan. 

“Let’s get inside, shall we?” She suggests, tugging at Jonathan’s hand. “I’ll make you some hot chocolate, if you want.”

The promise of hot beverages and warmth in general seems to catch Jonathan’s attention, and he nods, so Karen leads him inside. The temperature inside paints a blush on his cheeks, innocent and adorable as he plops down on the Wheeler’s couch.

Will is already sitting on the carpet, Mike a babbling fool sitting beside him. In front of them, Will is emptying the large bag he was carrying, covering the floor with coloring books and toys while Mike chatters away, clearly excited to be spending the day with his friend. 

 “Mickey Mouse is part of the three musketeers and he couldn’t wait to be a big hero. He works really hard to improve himself. That’s why I like Mickey Mouse. Plus he has Pluto.” Mike shoves the toy dog in Will’s face. “Doggies are the best.” 

Mike notices the pink crayon laying on the floor, and picks it up with a gasp. “I have an idea! What if we pretend the crayons are people! Like, the pink crayon is the princess and the black crayon can be Mickey.”

Will gasps too, a big toothy grin on his face, “and the orange crayon can be Pluto!”

“Yeah! And when we draw our picture, it’s the three musketeers fighting to save the princess. And when we are all done, the color that was used the most wins.”

Will nods, quickly grabbing a blue crayon. “This is Donald Duck.” He says as he begins scribbling. 

Mike grabs the black one. “I bet Mickey will win. He always wins.” 

“Not today.” Will laughs. 

“Guys, you want some hot chocolate?” Karen asks, poking her head around the corner. Mike giggles at that, ever the giddy one, and vigorously nods his head. Will politely and shyly says yes, which was to be expected.

By the time Karen gets back, Jonathan is curled up on the couch, his coat exchanged for a blanket he found somewhere. He smiles when Karen hands him his mug, even though he can barely keep his eyes open. It takes no more than ten minutes for him to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Will is sipping his hot chocolate while he colors some cars. There are some black ones, and a blue one, and all of them have a name written above them. Most say Mickey, some say Donald, and a few say Goofy. 

As Karen watched, she was beginning to realize Mike’s appearance was messy. His hair was sleep ruffled, bangs flopped onto his forehead. The nightshirt on him did well to block out the cold, but he was not dressed properly for company. His pants were he most embarrassing part, Karen thought. She had bought Mike pj pants that were two sizes too big, thinking that he would have a growth spurt this past year, but that did not happen. Now he was stuck in between baby clothes that did not fit and were too short, and big kid clothes that were too big and falling down. She saw her son tug up his pants at least four times in the past ten minutes. Most of the time his underwear was showing. 

“Hey Mike, sweetie. Why don’t you come with me and we can get dressed and ready for the day.” Karen suggests. 

“Not now, Momma. We’re in the middle of a coloring competition.”

“Michael.” She says, voice going strict. “This is not up for discussion. I want you to come with me right now.”

“But mooommmmm.”

“Let’s go.” She says, extending her hand. Mike sighs, pushing himself up off of the floor. He takes his mom’s hand and lets her lead him upstairs. 

“Will. Don’t color without me. Please.” He calls as he’s halfway up the stairs. 

Putting down the crayon, Will plops on the couch with Jonathan and watches some TV.

When Mike comes back down stairs he is dressed in corduroy slacks, and a striped, collared knit shirt. 

He wasn’t alone when he came down stairs either. Mike’s big sister Nancy was also making her way down the steps in a pretty pink dress. Her father was behind her, and then her mother. The whole Wheeler family piles into the living room to greet Will and Jonathan. 

They day carries on, Karen and Nancy spend some girl time in the kitchen talking about their nails and baking some dinner together. 

Ted sat on his Lazy-boy, watching some football and then fell asleep. Mike and Will were about to color on his face with sharpie, an idea Mike had, but Jonathan warned them that was not a good idea. 

Deciding against it, the kid settled for playing tag in Mike’s basement. Mike’s mom even let them listen to the radio! 

 It’s almost dark outside when Joyce appears on Karen’s doorstep.

“Are they okay?” She asks the second Karen opens the door. 

“Boys. Your mom is here.” Karen calls as she invites Joyce inside. 

Mike and Will pause their game of tag and run into Joyce’s arms, almost knocking her over with their strength. They immediately start talking her ears off, overwhelming her with stories about their day, and Joyce listens patiently, smiling at the kids. 

Jonathan gives her a meek hug, and then asks her about her day. After telling a few stories of her own, Joyce collects her kids things and puts them away in the bag. She is bent down on the floor, reaching under the couch for a stuffed animal bear. 

“Can Will stay for dinner?” Mike asks. When he doesn’t get a response right away, he starts tugging at Joyce’s hair. 

“Michael!” His mother scolds, stomping over to him and pulling his hand away. “I am so sorry, Joyce.” She says, as she maneuvers her son out of the way. 

“But Mom. I don’t want Will to go home.”

“You can’t pull people’s hair, Michael. It’s rude and it hurts.” She explained. 

“Sorry.” Mike whispered. “But can Will stay for dinner? Please Momma? I want to show him my blue dinosaur plate.” 

Karen snorts out a laugh. “Well of course he can. If Mrs. Byers is okay with that.”

“Oh I don’t want to impose.” Joyce said waving her hands in front of her face. “You already did more than enough for me today. I couldn’t possibly -“

“Oh stop. We would love to have you over for dinner. Wouldn’t we Ted?”

The man grunted, peeking his eyes open, “Yes dear. Whatever you say.”

“See.” Karen smiles brightly.

“If you’re sure...”

“Yay!” Will screamed, “I can stay longer.”

Mike runs to his side, and throws an arm around his neck, leading him to the kitchen. “Let’s get something to drink. We have OJ, skin milk, um... other stuff I think.”

“Thank you.” Joyce said. 

Karen heard her daughter shout at the boys, and she knew she had to get in there and break something up. “Seriously, it’s not a problem.” She says as she rushes to the Kitchen. 

And that’s how they end up at the dinner table with a steaming hot pile of Spaghetti in front of them. Mike and Will are bouncing in their seats, and Joyce and Karen have trouble keeping them under control. Jonathan has a blue stain on his face, remnants from his paint fight with Will, and Nancy’s hands are covered in marks left by Mike’s markers.

It’s moments like these that Joyce is grateful that her son has a best friend. 

**Author's Note:**

> My heart <3 is happy. 
> 
> (I’m almost done with the third Chapter to my other Stranger things story, called Bad Liar. I’m really excited about it. Please check it out if you’re interested.)


End file.
